War of the Burning Sky: Crystin and Haddin

K

Kath

First Post

• Feb 28, 2013

• #1

I'm just about to start running the 4E version of War of the Burning Sky, and I'm wondering about whether or not to keep Crystin & Haddin. I've only got 4 players, and so I'm reluctant to load them down with nearly as many NPCs. I like Haddin's backstory (it helps to justify the Inquistorial position when arcane magic is misused 'on screen'), but I'm less convinced of the merits of him travelling with them.

What's the on-going plot relevance of these characters? I'd hate to accidentally ruin a later plot though by removing NPCs willy nilly.

From a quick glance through the Burning Forest adventure (which I can't wait to run - such a cool location!), Crystin appears to be a prophetic plot device, and Haddin is mostly a grumpy bastard. I'm tempted to fold Crystin's prophecies into Torrent, as I'll probably be rebuilding her into a more arcane character anyway. Have I missed anything critical though?

 

log in or register to remove this ad

Ajar

Explorer

• Feb 28, 2013

• #2

My party left Torrent at Gate Pass, albeit partly at my behest since I'm not a big fan of having NPCs travel with the players. Amusingly, though, they ended up picking up Haddin and Crystin. I've mainly used them as an opportunity for RP; one of the PCs had a disagereement with Haddin, so Haddin dominated him when no one else was watching and they "settled" their dispute. The player pulled it off with aplomb, looking puzzled when the other PCs were asking him why he wasn't mad at Haddin anymore.

Normally, I find those kinds of antics annoying as a player, and even though Haddin has been handy in fights -- although only when directly threatened himself -- he's also shown total disregard for the PCs' safety, so just before the game stalled out last summer they were scheming about ways to ditch him in the forest while keeping Crystin with them.

Having them along breaks up the linearity of the first stretch of the fire forest a bit, but on balance I'm not really sure it's worth it.

As an aside, if you're starting WotBS 4E, make sure you update the monsters to MM3/MV math and consider tweaking some of the encounters. The first half or so of WotBS 4E came out before MM3, so it's a lot closer to the early WotC 4E adventures in encounter design.

 

K

Kath

First Post

• Feb 28, 2013

• #3

My players talked me into starting at level 3, so I'm rebuilding all of the encounters anyway . Levelling will also be by plot fiat, and a lot of filler encounters will be culled (e.g. the undead crypt, the gnolls).

More on topic, perhaps keeping Haddin as an NPC who tries to dominate the PCs into leaving him alone or whatever, without the assumption that they'll team up, will be more interesting.

 

Fox Lee

Explorer

• Mar 23, 2013

• #4

Crystin is also a potential ongoing point of contact with the trillith. I don't think any of what she does in that capacity is critical, but it's her major point of relevance; if your players aren't great at catching dangling plot threads, she's quite useful (though you could transfer this to somebody else just as easily).

I didn't actually run Fire Forest myself, so Crystin was pretty important for giving group "first contact" with the trillith. But in retrospect - how come the Song of Forms doesn't expose Deception and / or Foresight when they first hear it? I thought it forced all the trillith into their true forms. I must be missing something.

 

RangerWickett

Legend

• Mar 23, 2013

• #5

Maybe that got missed in the conversion to 4e, but the song just traps trillith in whatever form they're currently using. So while the song was going on, Deception couldn't stop looking like a seela. And Foresight is bonded with Crystin, so if it had wanted to manifest, it couldn't have.

If Deception had shown up as a free-floating incorporeal trillith with oily skin and tentacles, the song would have turned him into a solid version of that, making him easier to kill. (Still probably way beyond a low-level party, though.)

 

Fox Lee

Explorer

• Mar 31, 2013

• #6

Aaah, I see! Not so much lost in conversion, I think - I knew the song was active while Indomitability was a stag and Deception was a seela, but probably I got confused around later trillith, where we offhandedly get things like Madness maybe sticking around to fight if the heroes use the Song of Forms. In my mind that implied that it would unmask her, which is what would cause her to fight, but now I see it's more that it would just stop her from running away. That makes sense ^^;

Hmm, I have well and truly wrecked that then (when my guys first got the song, they got to see Foresight; with no Fire Forest, I needed them to actually meet a trillith before they were expected to uncover one in Banquet! ^^; ). Guess I'd better make my own rules on how it works.

Thanks for the clarification

 

Jdvn1

Hanging in there. Better than the alternative.

• Apr 9, 2013

• #7

I hope it's going well, Kath! I think Crystin shows up later - I just had the NPCs tag along bit "hide" during combat as my group is large. Worked for us, at least.

 

K

Kath

First Post

• Apr 12, 2013

• #8

Jdvn1 said:

I hope it's going well, Kath! I think Crystin shows up later - I just had the NPCs tag along bit "hide" during combat as my group is large. Worked for us, at least.

Click to expand...

What I'm leaning towards at the moment is having Crystin and Haddin killed by the Ragesians, and the trillith take over Torrent's body when tries to provide first aid - that way, I keep the cool prophecies in the Fire Forest but only have one NPC. Of course, knowing my PCs, they'll either entirely foil the attack or end up being the closest to Crystin when she dies

 

C

Cheeslord

First Post

• May 16, 2013

• #9

I am having trouble with the growing "NPC Horde" as the party are starting E3 and have in tow: Torrent, Crystin, Haddin and Tiljan, and they are about to pick up Katarina as well. Fights tend to be short (in rounds) as the party usually outnumber the monsters, but take a lot of playing time as all the NPCs have to be managed (I am letting the players control Torrent and Tiljan in combat - I have to control Haddin because he seldom helps out, and Crystin because she has plot on her character sheet so I need to keep it safe. I gave the party the option to let Tiljan stay and help heal the forest but ... are they really going to turn down a powerful flyingbardmonster ally?

Based on this experience I would advise you to avoid having pick-up NPCs unless there is no other option. Crystin and Haddin will definitely leave at Seaquen, and I will try and lever out Tiljan too. I think the plot wants Torrent and Katarina to be there for this episode too.

Mark.

 

K

Kath

First Post

• May 16, 2013

• #10

I did my best to kill off Crystin, but my cleric PC refused to let it happen (a shame because if she had died, the cleric of Ioun would have picked up Foresight). At least Haddin is gone though . I've made Torrent and Crystin non-combatants*, as I don't want them overshadowing my 4 man party, and Tiljann may suffer the same fate. When I raised the possibility of Torrent helping in combats back in Gate Pass, I got a very strong "No" from the party, so I'm glad I made this choice.

By the way, if the NPCs are helping in combat, I strongly recommend using the companion rules from DMG2, if you're not already. Companions have two at wills and one encounter power from a class plus a role-based encounter power (e.g. bonus damage for a striker), and so they're a lot easier to run than the pseudo-PC statblocks in the adventures. I think the official campaign website has companion-ised versions of the NPCs already.

* Torrent is a weather mage who specialises in rituals to ease sea travel. Crystin has mostly been in a daze since becoming un-dominated after Haddin's death; she's probably a ritual-based arcane caster as well. I might give Tiljann a single at will to use in fights, plus out-of-combat bard rituals and pie.